“I am trying to reflect the values in my music that could touch every individual”

Posted by Johannes Feigl on 20 Mai 2014

The New York Times have recently published an article on the role of religion (and also politics) in the music of Arvo Pärt.

“Religion guides all the processes in our lives, without us even knowing it,” the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt said in a recent phone interview. “It is true that religion has a very important role in my composition, but how it really works, I am not able to describe.” (William Robin, The New York Times)

Pärt will visit the United States from the middle of May until June. The composer will attend several performances of his music and receive honorary degrees from the New England Conservatory in Boston and the St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York.

Furthermore, he will attend the world première of My Heart’s in the Highlands for alto, violin, viola, violoncello and piano. Originally composed for countertenor and organ, the work now ventures beyond a church setting for the first time.